


A Resolution

by ancalime8301



Series: In the In-Between [1]
Category: Iron Man (Movies), Marvel Cinematic Universe, The Avengers (Marvel Movies)
Genre: Avengers: Endgame (Movie), Avengers: Endgame (Movie) Compliant, Emotional Hurt, Fluff, Fluff and Hurt/Comfort, Gap Filler, Gen, Hurt Tony Stark, Hurt/Comfort, Light Angst, Pepper Potts Needs a Hug, Tony Stark Needs a Hug
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-06-26
Updated: 2020-06-26
Packaged: 2021-03-04 02:00:13
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,963
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24935674
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ancalime8301/pseuds/ancalime8301
Summary: Six years of fears, of nightmares, of attempts at preparation, and it meant nothing. Nothing but ash on the wind.He was tired, so tired of fighting.
Relationships: Pepper Potts/Tony Stark
Series: In the In-Between [1]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1863874
Comments: 1
Kudos: 41





	A Resolution

**Author's Note:**

> This little story arose from the age-old problem of wanting to read something like it and not being able to find anything that was quite what I wanted.

The silence was so profound he just knew the last however many hours--the rescue, returning to Earth, reuniting with Pepper--had been a phantasm, the hallucinations of an oxygen-deprived mind.

His heart clenched. His breath caught in his throat. He didn't dare open his eyes.

And yet...

A distant whirring, a shift in the air currents. The whisper of a door opening, closing, and the padding of sock feet on a tile floor. The creak of a chair beside him and the smell of Pepper's favorite tea--something almond.

"Pep?" he said hoarsely.

"Good morning, sleeping beauty," she teased. A thump as her mug was set down, and her warm fingers touched his arm. "Have some water."

He finally opened his eyes. The room was dim, but not so dark that he couldn't see her. He tried to take the cup from her but she held firm and helped him drink. After a couple of swallows, his eyes wandered to the windows; the blinds were drawn and closed, but it seemed dark outside. "What time is it?"

"Four a.m., give or take a few minutes. You slept almost a full day."

His thoughts moved sluggishly and he knew there was something he should be asking, but couldn't pin down what it was. Instead, he returned his attention to her face and drank in the sight of her. She looked unspeakably weary. "Have you slept?"

"In bits, here and there," she said with a sigh. "It's been a long few weeks, and I didn't want you to wake alone."

There were volumes unspoken behind the words, but neither of them were ready for that just yet. He awkwardly shifted toward the left side of the bed, wincing as the movement pulled on his wound.

"Tony--" Pepper started.

"Come on, there's plenty of room. I won't break."

Her face crumpled for a split second as she seemed to fight back tears, then she nodded wordlessly.

He tried to help her settle along his right side, his good side, but moving hurt and she could do it more easily without him. When she was pressed up against him, his arm around her, her head on his shoulder and her hand resting lightly over his heart, he realized how cold he'd been before.

He pressed a kiss to her forehead and they slept without dreams.

* * *

The room was almost blindingly bright the next time he woke, despite the blinds still being closed. Pepper remained on the bed beside him, her gaze watchful. "Hey," she said softly before he could speak. "How are you feeling?"

He blinked several times and was pleased that his brain had shed much of the earlier sluggishness. "Like I got stabbed. I'll live. Why did Bruce sedate me?"

"You kept trying to pull out the IV, which you needed for the antibiotics that will make sure you don't die of the infection that's trying to come back," Pepper said patiently, carefully extricating herself from the bed. "It's lunch time, what do you think you can eat? Rhodey said you weren't interested in the oatmeal."

Tony snorted. "No. Nor am I interested in anything right now."

"Well, you're going to eat something, or you'll be getting a feeding tube." She paused, then said pleadingly, "You need to eat, Tony."

He swallowed with difficulty and looked away toward the windows. "I don't know if I can." The mere idea of food was enough to turn his stomach. He tried to change the subject. "Where's Bruce and Rhodey?"

Pepper crossed over to the windows and pushed aside the blinds. "What about a smoothie?" she persisted.

He sighed. "I'll try," he said reluctantly.

It was the right answer. Her expression lightened and she kissed him softly. "I'll be back in a few minutes."

Left behind with unanswered questions and memories he didn't want to think about, Tony felt restless in her absence. He eased himself off the bed and shivered when his bare feet hit the cold tile. Where they'd put his shoes, he didn't know.

He took two hesitant steps toward the window so he could use the back of a nearby chair for support as he stood, gazing out at a world seemingly unchanged. The sun was out, the trees were green, and it felt all wrong. Half the world, half the galaxy was _gone_ , how could the sun be shining the same as it had when he and Pepper were in Central Park before . . . everything?

And standing here in the Compound, where the fractures began to show well before Thanos came to splinter them to pieces, only reinforced his failure. Six years of fears, of nightmares, of attempts at preparation, and it meant nothing. Nothing but ash on the wind.

He was tired, so tired of fighting. It might even have been a comfort, to go out at the hand of the most fearsome enemy they'd faced, but no. His life was ransomed by the Time Stone, a trade that doomed the universe and left him defeated, battered, broken.

"Here, you look cold," Pepper said softly as she gently guided his arms into the sleeves of the robe he'd worn earlier.

He didn't know what emotion was in his eyes or on his face when he turned toward her, but she immediately embraced him, murmuring soothingly as he buried his face in her shoulder and clutched her as if he was drowning. Perhaps he was; it felt hard to breathe, the weight of what happened, what they'd lost, who he'd failed to protect pressing inexorably upon him.

"Tony, Tony, listen to me," Pepper was saying into his ear. "You need to breathe, Tony. Follow my lead."

She was his lifeline, his lighthouse on the shore, his guardian angel in this as in nearly everything else. "Sorry," he mumbled when he had enough air to speak, when he could draw away from her and wipe the tears--when had those started?--from his face.

"You don't need to be sorry, but you do need to sit down before you pass out again."

When he'd obligingly returned to the bed, she finally let go of him and went around to sit beside the table where she'd left his smoothie and her food. He took the cup from her and eyed it with dread. It looked harmless enough, so he braced himself.

After he'd swallowed, Pepper answered his long-ago question. "Bruce and the rest of them went off to find Thanos. Apparently Nebula knew where to look, so she and Rocket spent yesterday repairing that ship."

His stomach turned. "You mean they left on a suicide mission and didn't say good-bye," he said flatly. "Even Rhodey?"

"Yes, Rhodey went with them. He said he left a message for you with Friday. They seemed sure they'd be back."

"They left to confront the being who vaporized half of all life. The odds of surviving that are negligible to nonexistent. I should know." He swallowed against the bile rising in his throat. "Was the death toll not high enough already?"

Pepper rested her hand on his arm. "They had to know they tried everything," she said sympathetically. "You would have done the same in their place."

Tony had to concede that point. "How long do we wait before assuming all of them are dead?" he asked bleakly.

She took a bite of her sandwich instead of answering and he didn't push it. He watched her, his thoughts turning from the present to the immediate past and what had happened in his absence. She had already told him that Peter's aunt May was among the casualties and Happy was still here, but that and Romanoff's summary of worldwide chaos was all he knew for certain.

"Where were you when it happened?" he asked after she finished her sandwich.

"Are you done with that yet?" she asked in return, gesturing toward the cup in his hand.

He grimaced and took another large swallow of smoothie.

"I had just arrived in the office to prepare for the emergency board meeting about your disappearance," Pepper said. "Amy, my assistant, was talking to me when suddenly she . . . dissolved." Her voice quavered and Tony took her hand as she blinked away tears. "Janice, my secretary, and I were shocked, of course, and then an intern stopped in the doorway and disintegrated in the middle of saying that something weird was happening. It was the longest five minutes of my life as I tried to keep everyone in the office calm while random people vanished."

"I'm so sorry," Tony said quietly.

Pepper took a deep breath. "Somewhere in those five minutes we found out it was happening everywhere, not just to us. I had Janice send a company-wide email, telling everyone to go home, see to their families, and check in with their supervisors so we could get a headcount of who was left. Happy helped me get here, and I've been doing what little I can from here ever since."

He squeezed her hand. "I'll help. Assuming you want help."

She considered it, then nodded. "With half the board gone, I need more input on where to start with our reduced staff. The headcount is as complete as it's going to get, I think, and our losses are unevenly distributed. And then there's what to do for the families of those who are no longer with us, however many of them survived."

He was about to ask something else when they both became aware of voices approaching in the adjoining room. Pepper stood and opened the blinds so he could see Rhodey and Bruce had returned.

Tony belatedly remembered the cup in his hand and gulped the remainder of the lukewarm smoothie before they came through the door. His friends' expressions were grave. "The stones are gone," Bruce announced. "He destroyed them so there'd be no undoing what he's done."

"And now he's dead," Rhodey added. "Looks like this is our brave new world."

* * *

With all hope of a simple fix gone, attention turned toward what could be done for those who were left. Tony listened silently from the wheelchair, his hand never leaving Pepper's, as most everyone else talked about ways they could contribute to the recovery efforts. He wouldn't have bothered leaving the bed for this, but Rhodey asked him to come. Apparently they all still thought he'd have some grand idea to make everything right.

He didn't. And even if he had, his grand ideas had a history of going wrong as often as they went right.

So he listened and his mind wandered, though not so far afield that he didn't notice Romanoff staring at him before she said, "Tony, do you have anything to add?"

"Nope."

She examined him a moment longer before she nodded and addressed someone else. The conversation continued for a short while after, then everyone began to disperse.

Pepper leaned her head against his shoulder and asked softly, "What are you thinking about?"

"I'm thinking I'm done with this," he said, gesturing with his free hand toward the room and the people. "Iron Man isn't needed and I'm tired. I've spent so long looking ahead to the big fight, now that it's over . . . I regret the things I've neglected along the way. Like you." He raised their joined hands and kissed the back of her wrist. "I want us to go home, get married, live the quiet life, maybe see if it's not too late for us to have a kid."

She didn't answer for long enough that he grew alarmed. "Pep?" He tried to crane his neck to see her face.

She squeezed his hand, then lifted her head and kissed him. "That sounds perfect," she said, her eyes shining. "Let's go home."


End file.
